Snoop Lion ft Mavado and Popcaan – Lighters Up

A lot has been said about the ‘reincarnation’ of Snoop Dogg into Snoop Lion and his teaming up with Major Lazer. Some has been positive but a lot has been negative. Firstly lets address this from a strictly musical perspective. Snoop, while being an amazing MC, doesn’t really have a great singing voice. It is somewhat gimmicky and even more so with the addition of his average attempt at Patois. But personally, I feel that Diplo should be given an MBE/knighthood for his work on the tunes that have been released. He has arranged the few tunes that I have heard amazingly. To some extent he has actually put Snoop in the background and relied heavily on the back-up singers and featuring artists.

‘Lighters Up’ is first and foremost a massive tune, it has a huge backing track featuring two of dancehalls biggest current stars. An impressive hook brings you instantly into a head nodding trance, then a few bars from Mavado snaps you back into reality. His gravelly tone is so prominent on this track, whoever signed him up chose so correctly.

The verse from the man himself isn’t actually too bad, once again he has most definitely been toned down and kept to a minimum, but all in all this is a great verse from the supposed star of the track. Popcaan has the last verse and as always delivers. I have become more of a fan of this Vybz protégé and he doesn’t fail with this. A positive vibe about unity and peace rings throughout this tune. I personally think this is the biggest tune to date from this upcoming release. I however have noticed that when both Mavado and Popcaan shout out Snoop they don’t mention each other, is there still some Gaza/Gully beef going on even though the publicity around this tune is about bringing together the two camps?

As far as the politics go around the change in Snoop and if this is about selling records, or if it is in fact is an awakening for Snoop, I have always been told and felt that it is about the music and the message. This is a fantastic tune that delivers a positive and uplifting message. There is a possibility that it may hit the mainstream, hit this up now and be down before the crowds discover this one.